I'm all about Cooking Light recipes all the time. Hopefully you will find something that peaks your interest and inspires you to use Cooking Light everyday!
I try to incorporate fish in our diet at least once every two weeks. Winter can be tough because all you want to do is sleep and eat white, starchy carbs. But now spring is coming and when you want a light weeknight meal, this is a great option.
Once again we had green beans with this meal (recipe found here). I forgot to seed the cucumber, so it doesn't look perfect. I didn't notice a difference in taste either way. But I love the combination of rice wine vinegar, red pepper flakes and sugar. It gives you a totally unique taste of the spicy/sweet combination.
This is another great easy weeknight meal. Once you mix together the sauce and toss the cucumbers, all you have to do is cook the fish. I steamed the green beans while I made the sauce and finished the green beans while the fish cooked.
As of today's post only 3 people have rated this recipe from 2008. They gave it an average rating of 3 out of 5.
Recipe by Alyson Haynes, Cooking Light, August 2008
1. Combine the first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl; stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt.
2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and black pepper over fish. Add fish to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness. Place 1 fillet in each of 4 shallow bowls, and top each serving with 1/2 cup cucumber salad and 1 teaspoon peanuts.
Dear blogosphere,
I know it's been too long since my last post. Please don't hate me. We've had many things happening in our lives with little time to cook or post. Namely, we've bought our first home, or will (officially) in April. Between that, working a lot of extra hours and weekend trips, there hasn't been time for much else. But now I'm back and I have a bunch of posts to catch up on.
On to one of our FAVORITESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. This is such a great one. You can make it as an appetizer for a party or make it a meal. We had it with a little steamed green beans. I think I just threw red pepper flakes and butter on the green beans. Oh it's so good though. If you like peanut butter and you like spicy, this is the best combination of spicy and sweet. Not only is the meat marinated in yummy goodness but you also have the side dipping sauce.
I can't find the exact recipe online, I think because it is an older CL recipe (like before 2005 older). Not all of the recipes are posted on myrecipes.com.
we're in luck though because there's a similar recipe online that is cooking light. I don't think I've made this exact version but the ingredients look similar to the one we have. And 66 people gave this 5 out of 5 which on the yum meter means EXCELLENT!
If you like peanut butter and red pepper flakes you need to try this one. And if you make it, please invite me over because I super love it.
OH! One note about this recipe. It calls for you to grill the skewers. If you're like us and you have a charcoal grill, don't bother getting it all set up and fired up. Just broil the skewers. I think we broil maybe 3-5 minutes on a side. You have to flip them over which can be a pain because there will be some liquid (and it's hard to turn skewers with giant oven mitts).
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 8 strips
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons bottled ground fresh ginger (such as Spice World)
1 teaspoon grated lime rind
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
Sauce:
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons natural-style, reduced-fat creamy peanut butter (such as Smucker's)
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
Remaining ingredient:
Cooking spray
Preparation
Prepare grill.
To prepare saté, combine chicken and next 6 ingredients (through 2 garlic cloves) in a medium bowl. Let stand 10 minutes.
To prepare sauce, combine 1 tablespoon brown sugar and the next 5 ingredients (through 1 garlic clove) in a medium bowl, stirring until sugar dissolves.
Thread chicken strips onto each of 8 (8-inch) skewers. Place chicken on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 5 minutes on each side or until chicken is done. Serve chicken with sauce.
We headed south of the border (figuratively) this Sunday for a mix of spice and heat. Border-style shrimp is an easy 15 minute dish that calls for most of the ingredients you typically have in your kitchen (or at least I do).
The only change we make to the recipe is to add 1/2 tsp of hot sauce (we use Cholula which isn't very spicy at all). We may experiment in the future with more potent hot sauces since we love it spicy. We've only made this twice and both times made it with the corn muffins but this dish has enough sauce to put over a bed of rice. The rice would soak up the leftover sauce nicely. We also take the tails off of the shrimp before adding them into the skillet, it's easier than having to do it afterward once they are covered in sauce.
As of today's post, 27 people gave this an average rating of 4 out of 5.
As for corn muffins with jalapenos and lime butter, we throw in a little extra jalapeno love because (as we all know by now) we like it spicy. The recipe even suggests using habaneros in place of jalapenos and we might just do that next time. I have most of these ingredients in my house on a regular basis so it wasn't a big trip to the grocery to make this dinner. Here's a tip I got from CL: If you have a recipe that calls for buttermilk, instead of throwing the rest out or trying to make 4 other recipes using buttermilk, you can freeze it! Such an awesome tip. Now I just thaw it out the night before I am going to make a recipe that calls for buttermilk. Otherwise we follow the recipe exactly. This time, we didn't make the lime butter. The first time I made it, it did not turn out well and was a bit of a disaster. I don't really think that it added that much for the effort. But you are more than welcome to try it and see if you like it. :)
As of today's post 11 people gave it an average rating of 4 out of 5.
Border-style shrimp
Recipe by Cooking Light, December 2003
Yield: 4 servings (serving size: about 1 cup shrimp)
Ingredients
Cooking spray
1 1/2 cups chopped white onion
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup finely chopped green onions
Lime wedges (optional)
Preparation
Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 3 minutes. Add cumin, chili powder, shrimp, and garlic; sauté 4 minutes. Remove from heat, and add butter, salt, and hot sauce. Stir until the butter melts. Stir in juice and green onions. Garnish with the lime wedges, if desired.
Nutritional Information
Calories:
266 (30% from fat)
Fat:
9g (sat 4.1g,mono 2.1g,poly 1.4g)
Protein:
35.6g
Carbohydrate
9.7g
Fiber: 1.8g
Cholesterol:
274mg
Iron:
4.5mg
Sodium:
618mg
Calcium:
113mg
Corn Muffins with Jalapeños and lime butter
Recipe by David Bonom, Cooking Light, June 2006
Yield: 15 servings (serving size: 1 muffin and about 1 teaspoon lime butter)
Ingredients
6 tablespoons butter, softened and divided
1 cup chopped sweet onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup fresh corn kernels (about 2 ears)
2 teaspoons minced jalapeño
1 teaspoon salt, divided
1 cup all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 1/4 cups fat-free buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 large egg white
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon honey
Preparation
Preheat oven to 400°.
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic to pan; cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add corn, jalapeño, and 1/4 teaspoon salt; cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat; add 2 tablespoons butter, tossing to melt.
Spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, remaining 3/4 teaspoon salt, cornmeal, and next 4 ingredients (through chili powder) in a large bowl. Combine buttermilk, eggs, and egg white in a large bowl. Add onion mixture to buttermilk mixture. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Spoon batter into 15 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool in pan 5 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool muffins completely on wire rack.
Combine remaining 3 tablespoons butter, juice, and honey in a small bowl; stir until well blended. Serve with muffins.
Like wasabi? Then this is for you! This recipe includes dry wasabi powder (found in the Asian dry goods section of your supermarket) both in the rub and in the cream. Be careful when putting sauce on your plate, this can give you that horseradish nose burning sensation very quickly! Otherwise it is a great way for us to enjoy some fish. If you are using a charcoal grill make sure to check for doneness--ours takes a little less than the recommended time.
We served it with steamed broccoli lightly tossed with Wegman's Sesame Ginger salad dressing.
No other changes were made to this recipe, but it is easy to cut in half if you just want to make it for two.
As of today's post, 16 people gave this an average rating of 5 out of 5!
I hope you enjoy this in your home as much as we do in ours!
Recipe by Steven Raichlen, Recipes adapted from Steven Raichlen's books How to Grill (Workman, 2001) and BBQ USA (Workman, 2003), Cooking Light, AUGUST 2003
2 teaspoons wasabi powder (dried Japanese horseradish)
2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 (6-ounce) tuna steaks (about 3/4 inch thick)
1 tablespoon wasabi powder
1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup low-fat mayonnaise
1/4 cup fat-free sour cream
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons sliced green onions
Preparation
Combine first 5 ingredients; rub over tuna. Cover and chill 30 minutes. Combine wasabi and water. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir in mayonnaise, sour cream, juice, and soy sauce.
Prepare grill to high heat.
Place steaks on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 5 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Serve with wasabi cream; sprinkle with onions.
Breakfast is hard. You don't want cereal but it takes too long to make eggs and you want something quick and easy. We've made this maybe 5 or 6 times in 2 months because it makes 6 servings, you can make it ahead of time, reheat and grab n' go. Plus we LOVE spicy. We add a little extra spice to this to make it hotter.
Be sure to get the 13.5 ounce size refrigerated dough. We've used whole wheat pizza dough before as well and it tastes the same (still great). This time I accidentally bought the 11 oz can of dough which is why this looks so small in the picture. You can also use egg beaters in place of eggs if you're worried about cholesterol. If you don't like spicy, you could try and experiment; get chicken and apple sausage and Gruyere cheese and throw in some thyme.
As of today's post, 16 people rated this an average of 5 out of 5!
I hope you enjoy this in your home as much as we do in ours!
Recipe by Angela Spengler, Cooking Light January 2010
Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 1 slice)
Ingredients
1 (13.8-ounce) can refrigerated pizza crust dough
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
4 ounces chicken sausage with jalapeño peppers, chopped
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup chopped seeded jalapeño peppers
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Unroll dough onto a baking sheet coated with cooking spray; pat into a 15 x 10–inch rectangle.
3. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and sausage; cook 9 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir in eggs; cook 1 1/2 minutes or until set. Remove from heat.
4. Sprinkle Monterey Jack lengthwise down center of dough, leaving about a 2 1/2-inch border on each side. Spoon egg mixture evenly over cheese. Sprinkle cheddar over egg mixture; top with jalapeño peppers.
5. Make 2-inch-long diagonal cuts about 1 inch apart on both sides of dough to within 1/2 inch of filling using a sharp knife or kitchen shears. Arrange strips over filling, alternating strips diagonally over filling. Press ends under to seal. Brush with egg white. Bake at 425° for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand 5 minutes. Cut crosswise into slices.
I'm a late twenty-something who loves to make cooking light recipes for my family of 2 (plus 2 quadrupeds). I believe that you can make it healthy and still have it taste great. All of the recipes that are 'keepers' get filed into our makeshift cookbook.
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